Walking with Norsemen on the St Magnus Way of Orkney

I thought it would be easier to make the seals sing for me. My grandmother Mhairi used to sing to them in Stromness - and they would call back with plaintive moans that sounded so much like the gusts of wind that have long darkened the winters on islands like this. Tonight, however, the seals fall silent and the waves call as the sun sets over the Atlantic and the Brough of Birsay.

From this sloping tidal island, Thorfinn the Mighty - the most feared of Norse raiders - ruled and fought his way through the north with a brutality that earned him the name Raven-Feeder (after the birds that fed on the corpses of his enemies). The St Magnus Way is not inspired by such bloodlust. Rather, it is dedicated to the Raven-Feeder's decidedly less violent grandson, Earl Magnus Erlendsson, who agreed to be murdered so the people of Orkney could have peace.

This 58-mile pilgrimage route runs north to south through the green heart of the continent of Orkney, roughly following the path taken by Magnus' body after his death. He had shared the county of Orkney with his cousin Haakon, a fierce man seized with one desire: to rule alone. When the pair sailed to Egilsay in 1117 to end their fighting and negotiate peace, Magnus was double-crossed - they had agreed to bring only two boats, but Haakon sailed with eight, all filled with warriors. Magnus saw his fate and sailed unarmed. He bowed his head under the butcher's ax in Haakon's tears while praying for the soul of his executioner - seeing this as the only way to prevent an all-out war from devastating the lives of the people of Orkney.

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Magnus' body was buried at Birsay for about 20 years. Pilgrims came to pray and reported miracles. Then his body was transported...